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This thoughtful letter was received by a horse owner who was in the audience at the Tufts conference, and is reprinted with her permission.

A horseowner speaks from personal experience....
I was an attendee at the recent Tufts seminar on Hoofcare. I attended both days and stayed to the end of both days.

I thought the seminar was enlightening but not because of what Dr. Strasser presented--I've already taken her Basic Hoof Care seminar--but rather from listening to the panelists, watching who would consider what she had to say seriously and who dismissed it out-of-hand. And from listening to the verbal exchanges among the panel members and attendees.

I am a horse owner and will be happy to give you more background if you so desire.

What I took away from that conferences is that Dr. Strasser is trying to tell us how she believes the hoof functions and then what she believes the external parameters are to shaping the hoof capsule to achieve optimum function DURING THE HEALING PROCESS.

And this healing process is one she uses to take 3-feet-in-the-grave horses and get them to regenerate new and, as she believes, healed hooves.

I have, more than once, heard her say that when applying her trim guidelines you have to decide what is right for the horse at the time. It seems many people miss that point (I did in my initial exposure to her theories) and focus on her trim parameters. I also think too little attention has been paid to her clinic conditions under which she performs her rehabilitiations.

I heard Todd Merrill, during his brief statement, say how installing rubber mats in his clinic really helped him improve his ability to heal horses. I find it hard to imagine that Dr. Strasser just sat up one day and said "rubber matting is what I need" before she came up with her trim for these nearly-gone horses. I suspect it was quite the other way around. It makes more sense to me that she herself found out doing her trim was too soring
for horses on conventional terrain regardless of what that terrain might be. Why else would one go to the expense of rubber mats unless it provided the surface needed to optimally heal the severely damaged hoof?

I used to think it was the "trim" she was teaching. But after the conference my thinking has shifted. I had begun to suspect she was teaching less a "trim" than a theory after attending one of her Basic Hoof Care clinics which she taught last July. The Tufts seminar confirmed that belief for me.

I believe she is just trying to teach her theories and her experience in using her techniques to implement those theories...which she does IN HER CLINIC. And this point was lost on me, and perhaps many others as I never heard it emphasized by her or any of her devotees. What she has is yet-another-way to deal with, for example, founder. She believes it is superior because it heals the hoof, it doesn't just try to make the horse comfortable or serviceably sound.

I agree with healing the hoof. But too many folks, myself included, ran off with her trim parameters it as "the way to trim a barefoot" with no qualifications. Some horses could handle it
given their breed, age, terrain, use, diet, hoof integrity, etc, etc and some couldn't. Thus the tremendous successes and astounding failures being reported.

So I think there is too much focus on "the trim" and not enough qualification about how it was developed and how it is meant to be used, especially by Dr. Strasser herself. As you know, errors of omission are just as important as errors in what you include. I personally think Dr. Strasser has some very good things to say. And she is the first person I have heard in the medical/farrier business to say that bones, ligaments, tendons as well as hoof capsules can be re-aligned/straightened regardless of the horse's age. And she emphasizes movement more than anyone else I have read. For those two things alone, and
for her sharing that in her experience the hoof capsule can and will reshape itself I will be forever grateful. Because now I've seen it happen with my own horses when vets and farriers would say "too late, horse is too old" or "can't happen".

Do I do her trim? Not any more. I do not have clinic conditions. And I tried her trim with the help of a SCHS and discovered for myself how important that clinic is. Do I incorporate some of her beliefs in my trimming? Yes. Do I think she is ignoring some other potentially important
aspects of hoof function? Yes, breakover and shaping the outer wall (flare reduction) for example. At least I think this for MY horses in MY backyard the way I use or don't use them.

So I am SO grateful you got this conference together. I don't really know how to get folks to get off the "TRIM" thing and on to the learning thing. To get them to CONSIDER her theories. And then to prove or disprove them if that is possible given the number of variables affecting the outcome. The seminar was a start anyway.

Thanks for listening.

Jeannie Lieb
Horse Owner
Carlisle, Massachusetts

Click here to read the Guild of Professional Farriers President's Position Statement on Strasser Method, issued May 28,2002
Click here to a summary statement from Montana farrier/veterinarian Tia Nelson
Click here to read the comments of "natural hoof" barefoot trimmer Pete Ramey
Click here to read a summary statement from American Farrier's Association President Craig Trnka
Click here to see a foot trimmed by Dr Strasser and analyzed with Metron software
Click here to read a letter from a horse owner who has experience with the Strasser method.
Click here to read a statement by Cornell University vet school farrier Michael Wildenstein
Click here to read the summary statement of Dr Judith Shoemaker.